Happy National S’Mores Day!

So s’mores have their own holiday now. Pretty ridiculous, but hey, what do I know? Of course the s’mores you may have had around the campfire as kids weren’t vegan, but it’s pretty easy to make a kind version of this treat.

The first step is finding a graham cracker made without honey. If you’re in a hurry, you can get a store-bought version by Health Valley or Keebler. But if you have the time, make your own with this yum-looking recipe by Angela of Oh She Glows:

Preheat the oven to 350F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a non-stick mat.

In a small bowl or cup mix together the modified flax egg: 1/2 tbsp ground flax and 1 tbsp warm water. Set aside for 5 minutes so it can gel up.

In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients and make sure everything is combined very well.

In a small bowl, whisk together all the wet ingredients, including the flax egg, but give the flax egg a good stir before mixing it in.

Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and stir well with a spoon and then set the spoon aside and get in there with your hands and squeeze the dough together with your fingers.

Form the dough into a ball and place it on a very lightly floured counter. Be sure not to use too much flour or it will dry out the dough.

Lightly flour a rolling pin and begin rolling out the dough until you have a rectangle that is about 1/8 inch thick. You want to roll it as thin as you can while still being able to remove it from the surface. The dough tends to crack in the initial rolling stages (and this was true for all different trials of the recipe), but I found that once I worked with it more it began to hold together better. If the dough cracks for you, you can form itinto a ball again and restart the rolling process if need be. Sometimes I just patch cracks with another piece of dough and press it into the crack. Don’t worry because they don’t need to be perfect!

Once your dough is rolled out you can use cookie cutters, a pizza slicer/pastry slicer, or even a knife to cut the shapes you want. The sky is the limit!

Now pull away the scrap dough around the edges and set aside. Using a flat spatula/pancake flipper, carefully slide it underneath each cracker and place the cracker onto the baking sheet about 1inch apart.

Grab your scrap dough and roll it out and repeat the cookie cutting process. Place onto baking sheet.

Now grab a fork and pierce each cracker a few times so it has air holes.

Sprinkle with turbinado sugar (or coarse sugar/white sugar) and bake for approx 15 minutes, rotating the pan 180 degrees half way through the baking time. There is no need to flip the crackers during baking. Baking time will vary depending on how thick your crackers are, so keep that in mind.

Allow the crackers to cool on the baking sheet for about 10 minutes. They will firm up quite a bit. Enjoy plain, decorate them with frosting, or make s’mores! They are highly versatile and absolutely addicting.

Now that you have your grahams, get your hands on some vegan marshmallows. You can find them at Whole Foods stores, or you can order them from Sweet & Sara – they’re delicous! Another option is to use Ricemellow Creme, which is also delicious and much more superhero (becuase it’s made with brown rice syrup) but you won’t be able to roast it like a traditional s’more.

Next, pick your favorite brand of veg chocolate. Here are a few I love:

Finally, assemble! If you’ve never made s’mores, Hamilton from The Sandlot provides a tutorial here:

How nice you can have your s’mmores and feel less icky afterward – from a health point of view, but also your heart and soul can feel better about causing way less harm to the Earth and of course, animals. Yippee!

What other decadent desserts do you want me to veganize? Share your ideas in the comments below!